Pre-Apology
I probably won’t post much this weekend – the Greatest Birthday Ever Held will take up most of my attention, and I promised to produce a thing for church on tuesday re. the formation of the Canon (contra Dan Brown), so it might not be until the following week.
Funny word that ‘canon’ word. Almost sounds like it wants to be fired. Has a kind of marine or frigate feel to it.
And yet it is a solid implement to hold Christian belief in counterpoint with Christian imagination. It makes a lot of sense to have in orbit all of these books connecting the one story; yet none of the individual books complete on their own two feet. Rather wonderful that the truth of revelation travels through all types of forks, and hairpin corners and still manages to be one road — a fact that I hold in tension with many other less extreme beliefs about revelation, most days. The fact that Ecclesiastes is included is just outrageous, for example.
Atch, y’know I’d miss Ecclesiastes and Jonah if they weren’t there. And Amos and Ezekial and James. Could quite easily live without Numbers and most of Exodus. 🙂
It’s funny how everyone has a favourite “books I could live without” list. I’d be tempted to nominate Revelations, but I know a guy, by no means a wacko millenariast, who loves Revelation, and would be sorry to see it go. I think he would be happy to lose most of Paul – but, as a late convert to the delights of Paul, I’d be sorry to lose all that grace grace stuff.
It is infinitely encouraging to me that the early church didn’t just axe the things it didn’t like, but kept it all in. Catholic is definitely the word for it.